1. Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept relate to a semiconductor device capable of verifying the reliability of a semiconductor chip by detecting a fault in the chip resulting from physical impact occurring during a semiconductor chip fabrication process, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device capable of verifying the reliability of a semiconductor chip by using a reliability-verifying-signal transmitting unit disposed within a surrounding chip guard-ring or a bonding pad area, and measuring and comparing the state of a reliability verifying signal and a change of the period of the signal before and after physical impact occurs.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As the amount of information to be stored in semiconductor devices increases, the capacity and speed of semiconductor devices must increase accordingly. To meet these increased capacity and speed requirements, semiconductor materials having a low dielectric constant (k), which increase the operation frequency of the semiconductor device, may be used. However, material having a low dielectric constant may be porous, and thus, may be easily damaged by physical impact to the semiconductor chip occurring during the semiconductor chip fabrication process. Thus, physical impact applied to the semiconductor chip as a result of, for example, sawing and bonding processes, may damage the semiconductor device.